Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

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II. Schwetzingen – Elector Carl Theodor’s Summer Residence
join the flow to the summer residence at
Schwetzingen.
The 70 to 80 aristocratic courtiers in turn
had their own servants to look after them,
who naturally also required accommodation
in Schwetzingen. This explains the high
count of 1,500 people regularly migrating to
Schwetzingen for the summer. The palace’s
fairly modest buildings lacked space for the
entirety of court society as well as servants
and officials. For the period of their stay in
Schwetzingen, court servants were paid the
cost of board and lodging if they stayed in
burgher houses in town.
Those that were only required occasionally
in Schwetzingen were paid travel money.
Thus not all members of the court orchestra
were present in Schwetzingen all the time,
but were only summoned there for certain
performances. Government offices also
retained their seat in Mannheim. But since
the Elector as an absolute ruler needed to
have all documents placed before him, state
officials were constantly forced to commute
to Schwetzingen, since the business of
government could not be left on hold during
the six-month stay at the residence. This all
ensured busy traffic along the sturdy highway
to Mannheim.
Accommodation registers from the years 1758
and 1762 have been preserved. 22 In 1758 234
courtiers could not be accommodated in the
palace itself and were paid 4,442 guilders
from the court treasury to cover the cost
of their lodgings. The list also mentions at
which houses the courtiers stayed. The people
of Schwetzingen obviously profited from
the presence of court society in many ways.
Not only could they rent out rooms and sell
wares, but also participate culturally. Thus
Burney reports: “The Elector has concerts at
his palace every evening, if there is nothing
playing at his theatre. When this occurs, not
only his subjects but also any strangers have
free Entrée. ... To anyone walking through
the streets of Schwetzingen of a summer, it
22 GLA Karlsruhe, Pfalz Generalia 77/8506.
must seem as if it were purely a colony of
musicians, practising their profession at all
times; for in one house he would hear a fine
violinist, there in another is a flute, and here
a most excellent oboist, there a bassoon, a
clarinet, a violoncello or a concert of all the
instruments together.” 23
Summer Residences in France?
The French philosopher Voltaire (*1694;
†1778) wrote of his stay in Schwetzingen in
1753: “Je suis actuellement dans la maison
de plaisance de Mgr l’Èlecteur palatin.” 24 The
“maison de plaisance” would be translated
into German as a “Lustschloss”. Krause takes
the expression “maison de plaisance” to mean
a country house defined by its use, i.e. the
kind of pleasures one might enjoy in the
country, but not as not the hereditary seat
of the family, a working estate or a hunting
lodge. It is seen as a satellite in physical
proximity to the principal residence. 25
In France during the period of the “Ancien
régime”, there was no official summer
residence. Versailles established itself as the
permanent seat of the court under Louis XIV.
So that he could withdraw from Versailles
and the court, small satellite châteaux were
built for the French king and selected guests,
initially the Trianon-de-porcellaine which
was later replaced by the Trianon-de-marbre,
the Petit Trianon and Marly. But there
were still the great French royal palaces
at Fontainebleau, St Germain-en-Lay and
Compiègne, all of which provided enough
space to accommodate the entire court.
However, these palaces were only used
temporarily by the French royal court, for
example for an outing or during a hunt. 26
23 Charles Burney, p. 228 f.
24 Henry Anthony Stavan: Kurfürst Karl Theodor und Voltaire.
Mannheim 1978, p. 8.
25 Katharina Krause: Die Maison de plaisance – Landhäuser in der
Île-de-France (1660-1730), München 1996, p. 8 ff.
26 The spacious royal châteaux also had an assembly room, where
governing was done and the court was usually present in its
entirety, including the ministers. However, one cannot observe
the same continuity and regularity as for the German summer
residence, including unbroken accommodation for many
months.